ell, things ended well in the first book for Lieutenant Commander Matt Reddy. Aboard the four-stacker destroyer Walker, he and his crew found themselves in an alternative timeline in the Western Pacific. Here, apparently the asteroid had not wiped out the dinosaurs, velociraptors had evolved, as had the man-sized lemurs from Madagascar. So Reddy has allied with the fuzzes to fight the scalies. And given that he has a couple of 4″ guns with modern munitions, those lizard sailing ships don’t stand a chance.

However, in attempting to break a siege in what is modern day Surabaya, Java, he discovers three things: First, some of his allies are shit. Second, the Grik (those lizards) have impressed the Japanese cruiser Amagi into their battlelines, and thirdly, their battlelines are already strong enough with hundreds of ships. So what should have been a victorious sweep turns into a total route for the goodies, with land-battles, naval-battles, and stress from every vector.

I have to admit that Reddy using USS Walker as a personal tool of divine vengeance was particularly satisfying.  The baddies wailed and the reader smiled. It was a very fun read.

So yes, I am enjoying these Destroyermen books so far (I’d better – I bought the entire fifteen book set after listening to the first one on a long car trip). Once I get through the second massive book of Mistborn, I’ll have to pull out another and dive back into this strange world of steam and sail!

>>>AND YES, MY OWN BOOKS ARE DOWN THIS LINK<<<